Diary of a Hogwarts Professor
by Ana Silvertongue
Summary: rated pg13 for language, violence and adult content. the mis-adventures of ana dimitrios, former student, now returned to teach defense against the dark arts
1. A New Adventure Begins

If you recognize any of the characters contained here, unless you have read some of my other work, I do not own them.  The whole Harry Potter Universe belongs to J.K. Rowling, I just like playing in it.  Kate Rhys, Gwen Rhys-Black, and their various animals, yes Orion I'm including you, belong to my bestest friend Megan, aka Katherine Silverhair. I thank everyone who allows me to play with their people, places, and heads.  Have fun.  Oh, by the way this is the only time I am mentioning this, so if you don't see it in later bits, don't be surprised!

It was my first time coming back since the troubles ended.  I had not realized how much it might have changed until I finally came back and saw that it hadn't.    First I should probably tell you who I am.  My name is Ana Dimitrios.  I was born in a small town in Transylvania.  You may see this as odd, but I am not completely human. I am a veela.  Some people think that we do not exist, but they are the same people who do not believe in magic, muggles I think you call them.  We are what the ancient Greeks based the idea of the sirens on and although some may not know it, we not only dance but we sing.  Whoever hears the voice of our kind never forgets it, be they male or female, they can only bend to the will of the singer, and wonder afterward whether or not they were only dreaming.    
            Anyway, earlier in the summer I received an owl from Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  He desperately needed someone to fill in as a professor of the Dark Arts, due to the unfortunate fact that for the past ten years the school could not keep any one professor for more than a year consecutively.  It seems it all stemmed from the trouble surrounding a boy named Harry Potter and what had happened between him and Lord Voldemort.  Knowing that I held no fear of the latter myself, owing to the fact that I was related to him on my father's side of the family, Dumbledore asked me to come and teach the students about the dark magic harnessed by him and his cohorts.  I accepted the position and made arrangements to be there at the beginning of august to prepare for the coming school year.

I had apparated most of my belongings into Hogsmeade and taken them by coach up to the castle prior to the arrival of the students. I was surprised at how little Hogwarts and the nearby village of Hogsmead had changed in the past twenty-three years since I had graduated.  Although I had only spent three years there as a student, I had also attended the other two great wizarding schools in Europe, Durmstrang in Eastern Europe and Beaux baton in France, at my family's insistence on having a multi-national education.  That and the fact that I protested and nearly got the Dark Arts Professor at Durmstrang fired for what he was teaching the students, it was not really what he was teaching the students; rather it was how.  He was teaching them, as a way to defend oneself against them I guess, how to perform the unforgivables, the banned curses, the imperious, the cruciatus, and the aveda kedavra. To my dismay I learned that he is now the headmaster there.  There was also a slight mishap at Beaux baton involving me and one of the girls dormitories being burnt to the ground, but it was not my fault, one of the petty French girls, jealous of my heritage or something, had set the tower ablaze and it was not noticed as everyone was in the dining hall for the Christmas feast before holiday.  Somehow I got framed for it, I had gone to the bathroom at the same time it was set or something of that sort, and since I was not part of one of the great French wizarding families as she was, I was the one to be expelled.  But then, I had come from Durmstrang the semester before and trouble seemed to follow me wherever I went.

After discussing procedures with Dumbledore and the other professors, I went back to London to gather my remaining belongings that were waiting for me at the muggle flat I had rented over the summer.  Taking the final trunk with me to the Leakey Cauldron, I resolved to spend the last week before school started studying the people in Diagon Alley and the various offshoots of it.  One of my first stops was to acquire new teaching robes, as I had been living disguised as a muggle in New York for the past ten years, I did not have any every day robes in good repair.  I had been earning good money as a paranormal researcher, a psychic if you will, for some time.  The poor muggles must have thought I was just an eccentric, keeping owls as pets in my penthouse apartment, actually using my fireplace, and keeping cabinets full of odd assortments of ingredients.  I even used a cloaking spell to hide the pointiness of my ears, an unmistakable trait of those who are not fully human.  The apartment had a large greenhouse that I could open up to the night air and dance to my hearts content.  Needless to say my heart was never content there, which is why I came back to London in the first place.  
            After gathering my new robes and some texts to be used in class that year, I figured it was always best to have a copy of the books your students will be using as a reference to your class, I went and got an ice cream soda and started making lesson plans at the little soda shoppe on the corner.  Halfway through the first year student's lesson plans I realized that I would need to know what the higher grades had covered before I could make definite plans for what to teach them.  I resolved on my first day to pose an essay survey of all levels, except first years, asking what they had covered in the previous years and what they would like to learn this year.  I then proceeded to make out basic, fill in the blank type lesson plans for the older students.  I did this for the next four days.   
  



	2. Train Ride

Remembering my days as a student, I thanked whatever gods there are that I did not have to go through that again.  Although there were some bright spots, one of whom I was going to have to face in a few days after not seeing him for twenty some odd years, my school years were rather bleak and dismal and well worth not revisiting.  During my three and a half years at Hogwarts I had had this unrelenting crush on a fellow Slytherin, a boy named Severus Snape.  Albeit he was gawky, greasy, stuck up and rude; I liked him anyway.  Unfortunately for me he had fallen head over heels for a Gryffindor named Gwendolyn Rhys, who in turn went around with Sirius Black, James Potter and his girlfriend Lily.  I was an outcast in most circles, and feeling no affinity towards my housemates, the likes of whom I tried to be rid of at Durmstrang, I rarely was to be found outside the library.   
            Since it was just a few hours until the Hogwarts Express left King's Cross Station I needed to pick up some reading material.  I stopped on my way to the station at a little muggle bookstore just off the street corner.  Once inside I browsed around, feeling somehow comforted by book covers whose pictures did not move, or speak to you, or try to bite.  While searching for just the right book, I stumbled upon something that I hadn't read in years.  A small paperback book by Gaston Leroux: The Phantom of the Opera.  I hadn't seen a new copy of this since I was in school.  I bought it with muggle pocket change and went on my somewhat merrier way to Kings Cross.   
            I got to the station and it was packed not only with Hogwarts students and their families, but also with muggles. It was an epic battle just to get to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, let alone enough clear space to get a running start to pass through onto platform 9 ¾.  When I finally was able to reach the platform it was swarming with people and their luggage.  I had forgotten how crowded it was with families saying "good bye", " I promise mum, this time I'll write", and other such sentimental nonsense.    
            As I struggled to get my trunk up into the overhead locker of the last unoccupied compartment, a boy of about seventeen politely asked if he could help.    I looked him over and decided that his height advantage of about ten inches could probably wedge the damned thing in better than I could and let him shove the heavy chest into its place.  He had dark, unkempt hair that appeared strangely familiar and startling green eyes that I recognized at once.  
            "You must be Harry Potter.  You look exactly like your father, with the exception of your mother's eyes.  I'm Ana Dimitrios, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," sticking my hand out to shake his. " I went to school with your parents, and if you and your friends are anything like them, I am sure we will be having some very interesting discussions in class.  Thank you for the help with my luggage, I prefer not to use magic when brawn will suffice."  
            He seemed startled when he realized that I was old enough to be his mother.  " N-not to brown-nose or anything but I thought you were another foreign exchange student.  You don't seem old enough to have known my parents, let alone have gone to school with them.  I really don't mean to be rude, but why do you seem so young?"  
            " That young man will be answered on the first day of class.  And I would advise you to be careful whom you share that last bit of observation with.  You seem like a nice enough boy, I would hate for rumors to start flying before classes started, like they won't, but you really should go have fun during your last few hours of freedom before the term begins." Shooing him out the door.  "Good bye, and I expect to see you in class tomorrow."  
            After that I had a rather uneventful ride having the cabin all to myself, except for the few students who came to check out the new teacher, and I think I heard myself being referred to as "fresh meat" a few times in mischievous tones.

            When the train pulled into the Hogsmead station, I shared a coach with two of my new students, Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom.  Ginny was a nice girl with flaming red hair and rather pretty.  I introduced myself, not wanting her to feel uncomfortable with a total stranger. Evidently Neville had a penchant for losing his pet toad Trevor, and was searching for him when the coaches started heading towards the castle, he quickly jumped into our carriage before he got left behind, clutching his rescued toad.  


	3. Dinner and Drinks

The feast in the great hall was everything I had remembered, although most of the faces were new, I felt instantly at home.  Severus seemed rather surprised to see me sitting at the faculty table, as he hadn't been at the school when I met with Dumbledore and the other Professors.

            "I didn't expect you to look the same," he said sitting down next to me.

            "You forget yourself Severus.  Fully human wizards age differently from muggles, and you forget my non-human nature, of course I look too young for my age." I replied wryly.

            "I'm sorry the rest of us don't have the ability to appear eternally young." He spat at me.

            "Don't be such a git.  You know there are some aspects of being a veela that I absolutely detest, and if you don't want to make me angry, which I assure you that you don't, try not to push your luck." I said and fixed him with an icy glare.

            "All right, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up and offend you.  Welcome back.  If you need any help with your class preparations, feel free to come to me."

            I arched an eyebrow at him. "Who is the one who got the highest marks in that class?  Don't be sore that Dumbledore passed you over for the job, I've heard that you are the most knowledgeable potions masters of this century, he needed you to teach what you are most qualified for." He blushed slightly at this comment.

            "Truce?" he asked questioningly.

            "Truce, now I suggest we do as Dumbledore said and tuck in, I'm starved."

            The food had appeared on the table just as it always had.  There was roast beef, mashed potatoes, various puddings cakes and pies, and of course pumpkin juice; the only difference between the students' tables and ours was the fact that we had alcohol.  

            "Bourbon?" Severus asked halfway through the dessert.

            "Sure, so long as you have a pumpkin juice screwdriver." I replied.

            "A what?" he asked looking confused.

            "Good god man, you're the best potions master in a century and you don't even know your mixed drinks? It's a glass of pumpkin juice with a shot of vodka mixed in, here, I'll make it for you." I teased him.  I mixed it and he drank it grimacing.

            "Interesting, but I think I prefer the wine." He said hoarsely. "How can you stand that shit? It totally ruins your palate." He grumbled, glowering at me.

            "Compared to some of the combinations being downed at the other end of the table, that's nothing.  I think I just saw Flitwick down his fifth martini." I said starting to giggle.

            "I think you have had quite enough," he said looking closely at me.

            "Why whatever gave you that idea?" I asked innocently, blinking owlishly at him.

            "Maybe the fact that you've always had trouble holding your liquor, that and you are having trouble sitting up.  I think you should retire to your room now." He said looking concerned.

            "All right, but I really have to pee first.  Could you help me to the ladies room? I don't think I can walk straight." I said frowning.

            With that he helped me out of my chair and I staggered my way to the door.  Once outside the Great hall he placed his arm underneath mine and around my waist to steady me as we walked toward the ladies room. 

            "Thanks," I said the hallway starting to swim before my eyes; " I don't think I could have made it this far on my own.  I don't know what I was thinking, drinking all that alcohol.  I've never had a head for it.  Should have known.  OHHH, here's the door.  Pardon me while I go and relieve myself."

            He let me go and I staggered in and did my business, unfortunately dinner decided to say hello again, and I felt only slightly better when I rejoined him in the hallway.

            "Don't tell me you drank so much you puked.  I warned you anyway. Come on, let's get you to your room." He said resuming his position as a walking guide.  "I think you are just down the hallway from me.  Here we go," he said hoisting me when I slipped out of his grasp and crumpled onto the floor.

            "I think this is my stop," I said groggily when we reached my door. I was considerably worse for the wear.  He set me down in one of my chairs inside and told me to go to bed.  

            "I am perfectly capable of going to bed by my self," I said stumbling towards my dresser, "I don't need you to supervise, I will see you in the morning."

            "Don't get sick in the night and not get up in the morning, it would not look too good on your first day teaching."

            "Shut up and get out of my room." I growled.  He left and I climbed into the bed fully clothed. "I hope I don't have a killer hangover in the morning, not that I have before now, but knowing my luck . . . " and drifted off to sleep.


	4. First Day of Classes

As I sat at breakfast the next morning with my fellow professors, Snape had decided to sit next to me; the students were getting their schedules.  As the students were discussing theirs, we professors were also comparing our class schedules.  When I commented that my first class contained the seventh years from both Gryffindor and Slytherin, Severus gave a hearty laugh.

            "You're in for a time with that combination.  I've had them together for Double Potions for the past six years.  Headmaster, could I apply for the job once they eat Professor Dimitrios alive?" he quipped sneering at me.

            " And just what would you teach them Severus, now to betray your Alma matter and then come back to play favorites?" I snapped sarcastically.  
            "Ouch!  That one hurt!" cried Professor Flitwick on Severus' other side.  
            " We'll just see what kind of tune you're singing in a few hours time." Hissed Severus as he left the table. 

            "We'll see," I said under my breath as I started in on a fresh round of toast.

When I arrived at my classroom, just as the bell was ringing, there was a rather odd sound of moving furniture.  I stopped outside wondering what was awaiting me when I opened the door. 

 The students were sitting at their desks, both Gryffindors and Slytherins. I looked about, clearly suspicious.  There was one girl, with dark hair and blue eyes, who seemed about ready to fly at something. Or perhaps I should say someone. The boy who sat across from her had the pointed face and cold gray eyes of a Malfoy. Had the smug look that screamed his parentage, too. The girl, however, looked like Gwen Rhys. But the dark hair and blue eyes were out of place. Surely every Rhys had gold eyes.  
            I scanned down the role sheet. "Katherine Rhys." Sure as clockwork. Suddenly, Malfoy began to burp and moan. I smelled lye soap. Then heard laughter.  I walked behind the desk and cleared my throat.  
            "Assuming I am the professor here, and I think I'm in the right classroom, I would like to know what exactly is going on." I said in as stern a voice as I could muster with a student belching lye soap bubbles in front of me.  
  



	5. Bloodlines and Bubble Bursting

"Malfoy was being a prat, and his... er, conscience kicked in." Katherine Rhys said, changing from her sullen anger to enjoyment flickering like a candle in a window.  
            "All right," I said while thinking to myself that knowing their parentage I should not be surprised,  "What did Mr. Malfoy say to provoke the lye soap bubbles?"  
            "Oh, she did that ages ago." Ron Weasley replied happily, "Most brilliant thing somebody ever did to Malfoy, barring the incredible bouncing ferret episode."  
            The four Gryffindors sitting in the front snickered. God, that girl looked like Gwen!  But she didn't act like the golden girl, who couldn't be nasty. Oh no, this one had a tinge of shadows to her. Lye soap... sounded like something that Sirius Black or Snape would come up with. Black was just that much of a troublemaker, and Snape, Snape because he was a malicious bastard.  I couldn't help it, I smiled, a creature after my own heart was Katherine Rhys.  
            "Okay, now that fun time is over, could we begin class?  Please move the desks into a circle facing in."  This request was met with grumbling from about half the class, the rest of them seemed intrigued by what might happen.

"First order of business," I said taking a seat on my desk, "my name is Ana Dimitrios, I have recently come back to Britain from New York, two of my favorite things to do are dance and sing, although I have to remember and practice great care when other people are around. I was born in Romania, and attended the three great wizarding schools in Europe, finally graduating here at Hogwarts.  I have spent the last ten years working as a paranormal researcher in New York.  If you have any questions that I have not covered here, please feel free to ask."

Almost as soon as I finished Harry Potter raised his hand.

"Yes Mr. Potter?" 

" Didn't you tell me on the train that you would tell us why you don't seem as old as you really are?" he asked awkwardly.

"Yes I did, and I think Miss Rhys can answer that for me from the information I have given.  Miss Rhys, if you would?"

Katherine looked confused for a moment, then the light came on.  "I think what Professor Dimitrios means is that she gave us clues in her introduction speech.  The fact that she was born in Eastern Europe is a smaller clue than the other two, but the loving to sing and dance are the catch, especially since she has to be careful doing that with other people around.  The clues fit perfectly with what we learned last year.  Professor Dimitrios is a _veela_."

"Well met cousin. Ten points to Gryffindor for your deductive skills.  Now can anyone else tell me what you have learned of veela in past classes?"  

A frizzy haired girl sitting by Ron Weasley Raised her hand almost immediately and most of the class groaned at this.

"Yes Miss, Granger isn't it?" I asked sensing that this was one that I had to monitor how many times I let her answer questions posed to the whole class.

"The veela home territory is Southern and Eastern Europe. Unlike their relatives to the north, the Daoine Sidhe, there are no known veela males, so any veela you would meet is at least one eighth human blood. The race has very strong magic, powerful enough to cow any full-grown wizard of pure human blood.  Their innate magic manifests itself in a number of ways including dancing and sung spells.  Most times the people strongest affected are male, as that sort of spell work, especially by a veela, is innately sexual in nature.  Both the dance and songs most often reported are a lure similar to the sithe Come-Hither Charm.  The veela are what the Ancient Greeks and other cultures called sirens, which lured men to their deaths at sea.  That's all I can remember right now, I hope it is enough professor."  Hermione Granger said as if she were quoting a textbook.

"Very good.  That's more information than I would have given, but I did ask what you knew, and you answered honestly. Thank you.  Now, does anyone have questions about what Miss Granger shared with us?" Before I was done speaking, almost a dozen hands shot up into the air.  "Yes, Miss Parkinson?"  

"I was wondering if you could demonstrate any of the spells that Granger was talking about." She asked with a wicked grin on her face.

" I am afraid not, as I promised the headmaster that there would be none of that going on, let alone the effect it would have on half the class.  I do not intend to deal with rioting and fights on the first _day_ of class, and neither would I want the effects lingering in the brains of hormonal teenagers." I replied calmly.  Half the class was sullen faced at this statement, while some of the others were sniggering at the prospect of what I had said.  There was another hand in the air waiting for my attention.

"Yes Mr. Malfoy, what is your question?"  

"You said that you went here as a student," he said grinning maliciously "what house were you in and how long ago was that, since Potter seems to think that you are so much older than us?"

"Well, that is a very simple answer, I was placed in Slytherin and I was here with a good many of your parents.  And yes Malfoy, I knew your father very well." I answered as calmly as I could.  The memories I had of Lucius Malfoy were none too pleasant and I did not want to recall them to the front of my mind.

            "Now, back to today's lesson.  As Miss Granger stated, the Daoine Sidhe and the Veela are relatives, both races can trace their ancestry back to the beginning of history, if not the beginning of time.  Throughout the centuries, the two races have been persecuted and driven out of human society by non-magical people and to them we are mythical.  As a way of surviving we have interbred with humans, and although many may not know it, all magical people of European descent have some of the old blood in them." 

            This comment was met with quizzical and confused looks from about half the class while the others sat there wide-eyed and open-mouthed.  Not least of whom were two of the Gryffindors up in the front.  A pair of blue rimmed with gold smiled while the brilliant green ones that were framed by wire rim glasses next to them seemed astonished.  Those eyes, if their owner had reddish blond hair and slightly higher cheekbones, I would swear that they fit the description of the High King's, although having never met or seen a picture of Arthur, I could not be sure.  The rest of the class time was spent going through the class rules for the rest of the year.

By the end of the day the entire school was talking about the information I had imparted to the seventh years and rumors abound.  The next week was spent dispelling any false notions that the students had concerning my heritage and other things.  I had a harder time of it answering the letters that came pouring in from concerned parents and dispelling their fears that I was dangerous to their children in any way.  Evidently during the past twelve years that I had spent in the States wizarding/veela relations in Britain had not improved and had in fact gotten worse.  It was hard to dispel the notion that veela were essentially evil creatures who reveled in playing tricks on humans and that we were in any way capable of creating more malevolent magics than any human wizard.

Now when I say that I am a veela, I'm not being entirely accurate.  While my mother's side of the family came from Eastern Europe, Romania and Bulgaria mainly, my paternal family ranges from all over Europe.  My grandfather whose mother was a veela came from Greece, but my Grandmother was born in Ireland and belonged to one of the few fey families left in the mortal realm, so Katharine Rhys, her mother and all their family, are cousins of mine, way back in the Sidhe family line anyway.


End file.
